Carbonado Intermedia and are two digital media companies owned by Nestle Snipes (typically referred to as Nes Snipes). Carbonado produces animated sitcoms such as Budz, while Auteuristic is a traditional digital video production company focused on live series, including the Times Square Chronicles’ video version of their newspaper, Times Square Beat. Budz and the Time Square Beat are being leveraged by properties such as Verizon and Dish Network.

Both companies faced a similar challenge, requiring software they could rely on to create, render and edit episodes. In the animation world, days or even weeks of work can be lost when a system crashes, forcing the animators to return to the last autosave point or, at worst, to start again from scratch. With the live series, The Times Square Beat, multiple camera angles of each segment need to be synced up and edited rapidly.

Given the nature of the business and the constant production of the two technically diverse and ongoing series, neither company could risk the disruption caused by system instability, especially with tight time constraints of producing each series weekly. They needed a workstation platform they could truly rely upon consistently.

Considerations

A vast number of hardware and software combinations can be used in media production, however the majority are resource-intensive. Many require costly software licences and the need for expensive dedicated hardware is not uncommon.

With reliable HP workstations already in place, it was important that the selected operating system provide the stability, power and speed needed for reliable performance. The chosen platform would also need to support a wide range of internal and external peripherals and offer the flexibility to adjust all hardware-related settings.

Stability was the most important factor to consider. There was an inherent need for a platform that presented no issues with memory allocation, hardware compatibility and file format. At no point in the creative process – from creation to previewing and rendering – could the chosen platform be susceptible to crashes.

Licensing and management hours can easily push costs skyward. The solution therefore had to be easy to support, and because of the companies’ reliance on freelancers and external reviewers, it had to offer the flexibility to scale up and down. In an industry where every licence can cost thousands of dollars, paying for commercial software that is not used constantly can erode profit margins quickly.

Solution

In deciding on a software platform, the companies undertook a detailed review of all the alternatives on the market, before settling on Ubuntu, with a production toolchain based largely on open source applications.

The resulting workflow features Lightworks for editing and Blender for 3D creation, with GIMP used for 2D image editing work. Although there are better-known commercial applications in this space, every feature and every requirement is catered for with these tools, at a significantly lower cost and, most importantly, with the rock-solid stability the organizations needed.

Results

Ubuntu has transformed the ability of both production companies to remain lean and yet deliver its digital content both on time and on budget. Crashes and the costs associated with them have become a thing of the past. The new toolchain posed no adoption problems for a team that were schooled on traditional commercial software. According to Nes Snipes:

Ubuntu is a real workhorse. It handles absolutely everything we throw at it. When it comes down to it, Ubuntu just works.

On the Times Square Beat, the combination of Ubuntu and Lightworks saves a full day of re-formatting time, multi-camera editing, and daily content sharing for review, when compared with the previous solution (a market-leading OS and NLE or Non Linear Editing System). But ultimately, it’s the newfound platform stability that matters most. Ubuntu gives both companies the uptime they desperately need.

“We simply wouldn’t be able to deliver our work as fast and cost-effectively as this with any other platform,” adds Nestle. “Ubuntu gives us wings and Lightworks and Blender help us fly! Thank you Ubuntu.”

]]>https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/02/10/ubuntu-delivers-a-bulletproof-workstation-platform-for-media-productio/feed/0Datacentres in Containers, and Containers in Datacentreshttps://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/01/28/datacentres-in-containers-and-containers-in-datacentres/
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/01/28/datacentres-in-containers-and-containers-in-datacentres/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 00:45:15 +0000http://insights.ubuntu.com/?p=9465From months to one week: How IIJ is shipping OpenStack Clouds quicker with MAAS and Juju

Technologies that enable companies to move quickly in the cloud are continuing to gain traction. When we heard that the Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) were using OpenStack, MAAS, and Juju to develop quick-to-deploy entire datacentres in shipping containers, we asked if they would share their experience with the rest of the community.

Jorge Castro sat down with Cloud R&D team at Internet Initiative Japan Inc. to find out how they were doing this. (Translation by Takeshi Nakajima).

Quick introductions, please tell us about yourselves:

Katsumi Kaneda, Cloud Architect at IIJ:

His main area of concern is the cloud underlayer that can maximise the utilisation efficiency of the computer resources in the data centre, and the cloud networking which can federate various cloud services.

Masanari Nishiyama, Facility Engineer at IIJ:
His main area is developing container data centres with an outside-air cooling system. He is also trying to optimise power efficiency in cooperation with each computer resource and data center facility.

Takashi Sogabe, Software Engineer at IIJ:

Currently he is focused on developing turn-key solutions for hybrid clouds based on OpenStack. His main areas of expertise lie in OpenStack, embedded systems and designing ISP-grade networks.

Most Western Ubuntu users have probably not heard of your company, what do you specialise in?

IIJ provides a variety of reliable and highly value-added solution services, including Internet access, outsourcing, and systems integration as a comprehensive corporate group for all network usage requirements. IIJ also runs comprehensive cloud services provided on all service layers, from IaaS to SaaS.

IIJ has been developing low cost and energy-efficient container-unit data centres that are most appropriate for cloud environments.

What kind of companies use container data centres instead of traditional data centres?

Currently, most of the Japanese operators use traditional datacentres. In terms of Capex/Opex, large enterprises and telcos are going to be concerned about power efficiency and stock of facilities in the future.

Containerised data centres might be a right way to address these kind of challenges. Developing countries such as Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) are focusing on building their own facilities for providing IT resources on their countries. IIJ was selected to implement a feasibility study for high efficiency container data centres.

How do you provision so many servers?

We know you use MAAS and Juju to deploy HA Openstack, can you give us the general steps that you go through to deploy this software?

As the first step, we prepare KVM hypervisor hosts for accommodating management servers such as MAAS. Next, we configure the BIOS parameters such as boot sequence and RAID arrays, which is a pain point for large deployments. As a final step, we enlist bare-metal servers inside of MAAS.

What advantages does using Juju and MAAS give you that you didn’t have before?

The advantage is that we don’t need to manage an individual server any more. Servers are literally a bunch of computing resources. The brand-new style of management is ideal for deploying all kinds of cloud workloads.

How much time do you save by doing it this way?

Starting from scratch, it used to take us two to three months to deploy a full container that is ready to be used by a customer. By using MAAS and Juju we’ve managed to cut that time down to about a week.

How many of these datacentres are deployed?

There are currently dozens of containers in one location.

And how many do you expect to deploy over the next few years?

In the future we plan on deploying at least twice this amount, depending on market demand.

Why OpenStack? What advantages does deploying an OpenStack cloud in a data centre provide you that you couldn’t do before?

From the developers’ perspective, OpenStack improved the agility of IT development. We can evaluate a variety of environments at any time. All operations can be controlled by software. That is a nirvana for developers.

Are you using the stock HA charms for OpenStack? Have you made any customizations to these charms that are noteworthy?

We use almost stock versions of HA charms for OpenStack so far. We would like to replace Horizon’s theme.

How are you using Open Compute Project (OCP) components in your facilities, what can you tell us about them? What advantages do you see in using OCP components vs. traditional components?

OCP components can offer a benefit in terms of operational efficiency and simplicity. Common form factors reduce both cost of deployment and cost of maintenance. Simplicity is important because complexity tends to complicate automation with software.

And of course, the burning question, are you utilising Linux containers in your real-life containers?

We are utilising Linux Containers (LXC) in our services. In 2013, we released the production version of IIJ GIO MOGOK Service (MOGOK), an environment for cloud based web application development and execution. MOGOK uses the open-source framework such as Ruby on Rails, node.js and PHP. We use LXC to segregate a number of different environments.

Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, where can people find you to find out more?

]]>https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/01/28/datacentres-in-containers-and-containers-in-datacentres/feed/0Meeting evolving IT needs at the University of Nantes, Francehttps://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/09/02/meeting-evolving-it-needs-at-the-university-of-nantes-france/
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/09/02/meeting-evolving-it-needs-at-the-university-of-nantes-france/#commentsTue, 02 Sep 2014 16:03:19 +0000http://insights.ubuntu.com/?p=8482

Challenge

Universities have diverse computing needs. There are full-time students, part-time students, teaching staff, technical staff and administrators to consider – all with differing levels of experience and in some cases, long-held technology preferences. Identifying a desktop platform that everyone can accept is no easy feat.

Against this backdrop – and with over 40,000 students and staff to support – the IT Services department at the University of Nantes in France needed to reduce the total cost of ownership across its desktop estate.

Considerations

The machines varied in age and power, from very old administrative machines to newer PCs and workstations used to teach technical subjects.

While storage, networking and support was provided centrally, the PCs themselves were not. Each department had its own support processes, despite recommendations to streamline and unify them. To compound this, many users – especially longstanding faculty members – had developed their own technology prejudices. This combination of decentralised desktop management and cultural resistance to change imposed further risk.

The University had longstanding experience with Linux given Debian was already being used across multiple servers. From a desktop replacement perspective, the following requirements had to be satisfied.

Ability to run on older PCs as well as more powerful hardware

Ease of use, to avoid compromising productivity and quality of teaching

Freedom from the financial and administrative constraints of licence agreements

Fast deployment and easy, low-cost management

Security against external threats, viruses and hacking

Solution

In order to curb licensing costs and management complexities, it was established early on that Linux was a viable and cost-effective alternative to Windows – a finding that ultimately led to its deployment. The team considered Debian, but Ubuntu was eventually selected on the desktop side for two main reasons. Firstly, its ease of use and performance on the university’s oldest machines. Secondly, its management tools significantly reduced the amount of man-hours needed to support it.

Results

Today, Ubuntu is used on over 1,700 machines across the university, in departments including teaching, research and administration.

Matthieu Le Corre, technical manager of the Faculty of Science’s computer department stated “The university’s dual-boot computers, which are largely Dell, have seen more usage for Ubuntu than in Windows. User reaction was extremely positive, with even the most loyal Windows experts testing and appreciating the value of the new OS.”

For a single migration, mass upgrades to PCs running Ubuntu could be planned within a month and executed in a matter of seconds per PC – a job that could take around ten times as long with Windows.

The most noticeable improvement, however, was in the total cost of ownership. As Yann Dupont, Head of infrastructure management at the university’s IT and digital services department, explained ’’We support open source solutions and have long been using Ubuntu. In switching our desktop computers to Ubuntu, we have reduced our total cost of ownership in a significant and meaningful way. We also like the fact freedom it gives us from licensing fees and the ease with which we can deploy and manage Ubuntu systems – and because it’s so easy to use, we had no problems with users accepting the new software. Productivity was unaffected.”

Challenge

Bukwang Pharmaceuticals has been developing and manufacturing drugs and personal hygiene products in South Korea since 1960. Today, it has over 600 employees based at various sites across the country.

Prior to its switch to Ubuntu, the company had 620 desktops, with 60% running Windows 7 and the remainder on Windows XP. When Microsoft’s support for Windows XP was terminated, Bukwang was faced with a new, more expensive Enterprise Assurance contract with Microsoft. This would also necessitate buying new PCs to run the new software. Together these factors would significantly increase the cost of Bukwang’s desktop deployment.

Considerations

The team at Bukwang already had some experience with open source software including OpenOffice, 7ZIP and Linux on the server. They had even developed an ERP system using open source components.

All the above gave them confidence that an open source solution could solve their desktop issues, but several obstacles remained. One, surprisingly, was cost. Linux is well known in Korea, due to its place on the curriculum at many universities. However, in the corporate world, many deployments are tied to expensive support contracts from suppliers like Red Hat, often priced per seat. The other was the prevalent use of Microsoft in the marketplace. Compatibility with its office productivity suite and popular software packages like Active-X would be a key requirement.

Solution

Of all the open source desktop platforms available, Ubuntu was considered the best fit for Bukwang Pharmaceuticals for a number of reasons:

It is easy to install and requires minimal management overhead – in fact, two administrators were able to upgrade, test and roll Ubuntu out onto 390 PCs in just two weeks.

Ubuntu is secure by design, greatly reducing the cost of monitoring security across the desktop estate.

It features a remarkably user-friendly interface, making it easy for people who have grown up with Windows to use.

It can co-exist easily with other platforms. Due to the country-wide prevalent use of Microsoft’s Active-X software, only 62% of the company’s PCs could be migrated away from Windows in the first instance, so interoperability was a must.

Results

In the first phase of the project, Bukwang Pharmaceuticals switched around 400 PCs to Ubuntu. Even before the planned migration of all remaining machines, savings on annual licensing alone totalled $300,000. And the benefits didn’t stop there.

In a country where Microsoft was so well entrenched, Bukwang’s migration to Ubuntu and Open Source proved to be of enormous interest in the business community. It generated a raft of free publicity in the media, including interviews with the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

Most exciting of all, however, was the new software skills the company gained, particularly in the rapid development of bespoke software – a platform for which Ubuntu is famously well suited. As a direct result of its experience with Ubuntu, Bukwang launched a successful software development subsidiary called Bukwang C&C, specialising in open source solutions for the Korean business market. As Sang-Hoon Kim, President and CEO of Bukwang Pharmaceutical, explained: “At first, we just wanted to save money. But we never expected the free publicity that would result, nor did we expect to launch a profitable new business. For all our success so far, however, it still feels like we are at the beginning of our open source journey.”

]]>https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/07/31/bukwang-pharmaceuticals-cut-it-costs-and-created-business-value-with-ubuntu/feed/0Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millionshttps://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/07/07/ubuntu-and-open-source-help-the-city-of-munich-save-millions/
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/07/07/ubuntu-and-open-source-help-the-city-of-munich-save-millions/#commentsMon, 07 Jul 2014 09:59:16 +0000http://insights.ubuntu.com/?p=8179

Challenge

Munich is the third-largest city in Germany, with approximately 1.5 million inhabitants. The local governing body employs more than 33,000 people – 16,000 of whom use PCs as part of their daily roles. Those computers are located at different sites and their users have widely differing needs. In 2001, there were 22 organisational units, each of which controlled its own IT resources. Client software versions, patch management, shared directories and user permission policies varied across the organisation.

With Windows NT approaching its end-of-life deadline and Windows XP due to follow, an alternative was needed to the enforced cycle of large-scale software upgrades; an alternative that could satisfy the city’s myriad requirements:

Wide range of applications

Interoperability with other platforms

Regularly updated hardware support

Low management overhead

Freedom from vendor lock-in.

Considerations

Open source software was not necessarily an obvious choice. Much of the city’s software infrastructure used Microsoft technologies, from Microsoft Office macros written in Visual Basic, to applications that relied on the Windows operating system. There was no doubt that in the short term, it would have been easier for the City of Munich to remain with Microsoft, but after extensive research and consideration of both the short term and long term effects, the decision was made to pursue an open source solution. The question then became about which specific technologies to adopt.

Due in part to the complexity mentioned above, it soon became clear that this would not be a simple desktop migration. This was to be a re-organisation of the city’s entire IT infrastructure.

The ensuing “LiMux” project would span many years and nothing like it had been undertaken before. There was no best practice or precedent and the solution would need to evolve as the project progressed. With so much public money at stake, it was vital that stakeholder commitment was secured and maintained – especially as the eyes of the technology world were watching. Seeing the project as a potential catalyst for more similar migrations, Microsoft lobbied hard to derail it. At one point, CEO Steve Ballmer cut short a holiday to fly to Munich and meet with the mayor in person.

Solution

The first iteration of the project saw Debian deployed in 2006. But a more predictable update cycle was required and, with a policy of tendering for new hardware suppliers every four years, the promise of ongoing support for a wider range of devices. So, in 2009, the city switched to Kubuntu, a flavour of Ubuntu. With the need to sustain political backing throughout the process, blogs and newsletters were used to keep stakeholders up-to-date, while explaining the change in platform to users and support staff. Forums were set up to enable stakeholders to voice their concerns and ask questions. Processes were established to manage user requirements, develop new LiMux releases and test them before roll-out to user workstations.

Results

By the end of 2012, the LiMux project had reached its main goal: to migrate 12,000 workstations to Linux (a deployment now numbering 14,000 PCs).

The switch from from proprietary software to open source has saved the city more than €10 million – a figure that accounts for both the hire of external companies to implement solutions and the internal man-hours the city has invested in management, training and testing. By 2012, €6.8 million had been saved on Microsoft licensing alone.

By August 2013, the cost of the entire project had reached €23 million, compared with an estimated €34 million just to upgrade to Windows 7 and new versions of Microsoft Office.

According to Peter Hofmann, project manager for the City of Munich; “The LiMux/open source project was a long and iterative one, but after a few years of running such a large Linux base, we realised Ubuntu was the platform that could satisfy our requirements best. By combining the low costs and freedom of open source software with ongoing support for the hardware and applications we need, it was one of the critical elements to the success of this project. Most important was the backing of our politicians throughout the project.”

With just 400 Macbooks shared among 1,725 students and ever-changing educational needs, Penn Manor school district needed more than just replacement machines. It needed to provide continuous access to a range of computing facilities – and it needed to do so for every student. Yet the cost to provide new machines for all its students appeared prohibitive.

Considerations

Penn Manor's selection of any new hardware would need to fulfil a number of requirements:

A full keyboard to enable the development of written expression

Local file storage to allow for offline work, if connectivity was limited at home

The facility for students to learn programming

An interface and user experience to which they could quickly adapt

Penn Manor considered a wide range of options.

Cost per unit ruled out replacement Macbooks immediately, along with most Windows PCs. Tablets were deemed inappropriate for several reasons, including cost, specification, lack of a keyboard, workflow complexity and programming limitations. Chromebooks were also considered but quickly dismissed, due to their lack of local file storage and the inability to install local programs.

Solution

The district eventually opted for Acer TravelMate TMB113 laptops running Ubuntu, for the following reasons:

Provision of full specification at below the target unit price

Inclusion of LibreOffice productivity suite for local document creation

Choice of both Firefox and Chrome web browsers

Support of Bigbluebutton, the virtual classroom, alongside other educational resources such as GCompris.

Results

Students finally have their own computers, both at home and in class. Before, access was limited to lessons – and then, only if their teachers booked the Macbooks in advance. And thanks to the user-friendly Unity interface, a ten-minute orientation session was all that was needed to help every student find their way around their new PC.

Charlie Reisinger, Penn Manor Technology Director, explained:

These laptops are the Swiss Army Knives of education computing. They give everyone equal access to the Internet – and a full and powerful computing device, instead of just a smartphone or a tablet.

Ultimately, it was the low cost and high capability of the Ubuntu laptops that made this migration a success. The total cost for all 1,700 machines was only around 20% more than it had been for 400 Macbooks, just five years before. In year 1 alone, the savings on licence fees amounted to around $200 per laptop: a total of around $345,000.

]]>https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/03/25/an-ubuntu-pc-for-everyone-in-penn-manor-school-district-pennsylvania-usa/feed/0Ubuntu helps millions of Indian students to learnhttps://insights.ubuntu.com/2013/12/04/ubuntu-helps-millions-of-indian-students-to-learn/
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2013/12/04/ubuntu-helps-millions-of-indian-students-to-learn/#commentsWed, 04 Dec 2013 11:25:40 +0000http://insights.ubuntu.com/?p=2967Ubuntu and its hardware partners like HP are at the forefront of supplying computers to Indian students.

Government in India understands that IT literacy will help drive the already fast-growing Indian economy into the sustainably profitable knowledge-based sectors vital for its future. To enable this transformation they’ve invested in computers making them readily available to Indian students.

In the state of Uttar Pradesh, one of the world’s largest government sponsored laptop programmes is taking place with 1.5 million Ubuntu/HP laptops delivered.

Uttar Pradesh has witnessed the economic growth in the knowledge-based and IT intensive service sectors in India. They want to promote IT literacy, as a means to encourage their graduating students to think about careers like software development. With two million software developers in India, Uttar Pradesh is keen for its young people to join their number.

The Government of Assam has given 28,000 Ubuntu laptops to learners this year alone. They run an incentive programme for grade 12 students to receive a free computer if they achieve more than 60% in their final exams. Their value is explained by MK Yadava, former Managing Director Assam Electronics Development Corporation (AMTRON): “The Ubuntu-based PCs are of huge benefit to the students of Assam. They have all the educational programmes they need – from word processing to spreadsheet creation – and it’s all ready to go from day one.”

At The University of Delhi, placed third in India’s university rankings, 65,000 Ubuntu HP laptops have been deployed on campus for its students.

The feedback in all these successful programmes has been that Ubuntu is a preferred solution in Indian education because:

It’s secure and virus free

An abundance of Education applications are available on the Ubuntu Software Centre

It has all the productivity software that students need in LibreOffice

It’s low-cost, and proven

“At Canonical these programmes are very exciting for us”, explains Maria Bonnefon, Director, channel and market development. “Ubuntu has always been about collaboration – humanity towards others, and the freedom to participate. These programmes extend that freedom to communities which otherwise may have been cut off from it. We look forward to continuing our involvement in education in India with our partners, like HP”.

Ubuntu solutions are increasingly embraced by educators from nursery schools to higher education institutions across the globe. To learn more about how Ubuntu laptops and desktops can enable a great educational environment for students, teaching staff, and administrators email us at education@canonical.com

Summary

To give local start-ups and entrepreneurs access to infrastructure and services on demand, Hong Kong’s digital community Cyberport built a new, open-source cloud computing environment on OpenStack and Ubuntu. Following 18 months of development effort, the Cyberport cloud now provides a range of industry vertical solutions for local start-ups in the digital content community, from digital content storage and delivery, to animation rendering in the cloud. Cyberport is planning to scale out the cloud environment to serve ever greater numbers of local tenants, and is sharing its cloud-buildings knowledge with other local organisations to foment ICT innovation and economic growth.

Challenge

Until recently, start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses had to invest heavily in technology infrastructure before they could open for business. Today, however, cloud computing provides a faster, more cost-effective option, giving small businesses access to IT infrastructure and services on demand – providing an even playing field to even startups.

Cyberport, a creative digital community in Hong Kong, has long been charting the rise of cloud computing and analysing how it might benefit local businesses. The company, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong Government, is dedicated to driving the local economy by nurturing IT-intensive start-ups, driving collaboration to pool resources and create business opportunities, and accelerating ICT adoption through strategic initiatives and partnerships.

Dr. David Chung, CTO at Cyberport, says: “We always knew we wanted to build a cloud and deliver data, voice and video services to local technology start-ups on a utility basis. However, with so many open-source options available, we didn’t really know where to start.”

Chung admits that the road to cloud implementation was a rocky one at first. “We tried several technologies that were quick and easy to deploy, but there was a price to pay for that simplicity,” he says. “Our first attempts at cloud building were riddled with security vulnerabilities, and we went back to the drawing board several times to evaluate different options.”

Solution

When Chung became aware of the OpenStack project in spring 2011, he decided to evaluate the technology as a potential foundation for the new Cyberport cloud. The Cyberport team members began working with OpenStack full time to assess its functionality and build a test cloud environment on the organisation’s existing hardware infrastructure.

Chung says: “Lots of vendors talk about cloud, but their strategies fall short in one way or another, either in terms of security or functionality. By contrast, OpenStack is a global movement that is constantly evolving. It’s simple to set up a test cloud and to get a taste of what the technology can do.”

Based on trials in a test environment, the Cyberport team decided to build its live cloud on OpenStack and the Ubuntu 12.04 Long Term Release operating system.

“Ubuntu is the reference OS for OpenStack, and it is an ideal fit for us and our tenants,” says Chung. “It enables us to scale out the cloud environment without paying additional licensing costs, which is very important for a non-profit organisation like ours,” he adds. “Ubuntu has also proved extremely stable and secure – especially since the launch of 12.04 in April – which helps us ensure that our tenants’ systems and data are available and fully protected at all times.”

Cyberport’s Ubuntu cloud is tailored to the needs of its start-up tenants.

“We have vertical knowledge in the digital content space, and most of our start-up tenants operate in that sector,” says Chung. “Using OpenStack and Ubuntu, we have created industry vertical cloud services that help tenants solve specific business problems – such as how to record, store and deliver digital content, and how to render animations in the cloud.”

Results

Value-added cloud services for start-up tenants

Today, 16 local, IT-intensive Cyberport tenants are consuming cloud services – requesting access to virtual Ubuntu servers and other resources via a self-service portal. Around 20 local cinemas are streaming live content/movies from the cloud, and students from over 30 local school teams are using the cloud to render their animation projects. The cloud infrastructure is also used to broadcast live and pre-recorded events for local people online.

“We are doing all kinds of exciting things with the cloud, and we’re now looking to scale out to serve more tenants, add more content, and create new, industry vertical services,” says Chung.

Sharing knowledge between cloud builders

Since it began building its Ubuntu cloud, Cyberport has been in constant contact with other cloud builders worldwide. “There is a huge amount of useful information available from the global Ubuntu community online, and that has been a big help to us during our own cloud journey,” says Chung. “We have also attended meetings around the world, and shared our experience to save others time and help them achieve success with their cloud deployments,” he adds.

Canonical is a trusted advisor to Cyberport and Ubuntu engineering routinely helped Cyperport evangelise Ubuntu and OpenStack to startups by offering workshops and trainings to Cyberport’s startup community.

This strategic yet symbiotic relationship has been the catalyst for the creation of Hong Kong’s first Openstack/ Ubuntu user group, which will promote knowledge sharing between cloud builders across Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and beyond.

Enterprise support for the open-source cloud

With plans to scale-out its Ubuntu cloud, Cyberport is looking into the various support options and management tools available from Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu project. “We are working with Canonical to ensure we are properly supported as we scale out our Ubuntu cloud,” says Chung. “In particular, we are looking at the Ubuntu Advantage service, which gives us access to Canonical support engineers and Openstack contributors working at Canonical, whenever we ever need them.”

Cyberport is also evaluating the value of Canonical’s Landscape systems monitoring and management tool for cloud administration and scaling. “Landscape offers great benefits for simplifying cloud management – particularly updates and upgrades,” says Chung. “Technology of this kind is extremely beneficial for us as our cloud infrastructure expands and user numbers grow.”

A cost-effective cloud environment

Chung is convinced that OpenStack and Ubuntu offer one of the most cost-effective cloud solutions available. “In a proprietary cloud, software can be even more expensive than hardware, and licensing, maintenance and support costs would have to be passed on to our tenants,” he says. “By contrast, using Ubuntu and OpenStack has kept software costs to a minimum, enabling us to focus on increasing the size and capacity of our hardware estate and delivering better services for local start-ups.”

Summary

NA Bancard provides fully managed, cost-effective payment processing services, enabling US businesses to accept non-cash payments in store, online, and through mobile channels. Mission-critical financial transactions are processed by more than 100 Ubuntu servers, which are managed centrally using Canonical’s Landscape systems management and monitoring tool. Since deploying Landscape, NA Bancard has greatly reduced the time and cost associated with routine server administration and achieved fast returns on investment. It has also improved the speed and consistency of patch management, change management, user management and asset management, streamlining compliance with complex Processing Card Industry (PCI) regulations.

Challenge

Today, accepting credit cards and other non-cash payments is a necessity for most US businesses. What’s more, the rapid growth of online and mobile channels is placing greater demands than ever on payments systems and infrastructure.
To help organisations overcome these challenges, NA Bancard provides all the infrastructure and systems business customers need to process non-cash payments across multiple channels – all as a fully managed service. Providing a wide range of capabilities, from credit and debit card processing to electronic balance transfers and gift and loyalty cards, NA Bancard offers some of the lowest rates in the industry, helping businesses keep hold of their hard-earned profits.

Serving 135,000 customers and processing transactions worth $12 billion every year, NA Bancard and its customers need IT infrastructure that is constantly available and totally secure. Equally importantly, the company’s IT environment and management processes must comply with strict Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations.

“PCI regulations can be a minefield,” says Kelly Corbin, Senior Systems Administrator at NA Bancard. “Once a year, we have to demonstrate proper management of our IT environment, from change management and user management, to data management, backup and recovery. That can be a nightmare – especially if management is carried out manually on individual servers,” he adds.

To streamline PCI compliance requirements and automate time-consuming management tasks, Corbin and his team began looking for a new solution to centralise and automate server administration. “We wanted tools for managing patches, provisioning resources and controlling user access centrally in a fully automated and compliant way,” he says. “What’s more, we needed better visibility of available IT resources to ensure consistently excellent service for our customers.”

Solution

NA Bancard uses the Linux-based Ubuntu Server operating system to deliver world-class payments services for its customers. “Ubuntu is extremely easy to harden for security, and it provides the high levels of availability and performance we need in our industry,” says Kelly. “We process all our customers’ transactions using 100 Ubuntu Servers running 10.04 and 12.04 LTS versions,” he adds.

Corbin evaluated a number of potential solutions for centralising and automating management of the company’s mission-critical Ubuntu estate. “It wasn’t easy to find a solution for automating management and compliance at first,” he says. “However, when I discovered Canonical’s Landscape Server, I knew it was the perfect fit for us.”

Available through the Ubuntu Advantage service, Canonical’s Landscape systems monitoring and management tool is designed to support efficient administration of large, distributed Ubuntu deployments. Landscape is available as both an online, hosted service and a dedicated service – and NA Bancard chose the latter to maximise security.

Landscape provides simple tools for managing NA Bancard’s Ubuntu servers and running scripts from a single, centralised interface. These tools help the admin team reduce time spent on routine tasks and streamline compliance with key PCI management requirements. Specifically, the company is using Landscape to increase the efficiency of:

Patch management

Landscape enables deployment of security updates and other patches across sub-sets of Ubuntu servers or the entire NA Bancard estate with the click of a mouse, reducing management workloads and ensuring all servers are secure and up to date.

Compliance reporting

Landscape uses pre-saved scripts to collect and consolidate compliance data across the Ubuntu estate. This is made available to administrators and auditors to demonstrate compliance with PCI regulations for IT management.

User access management and resource provisioning

Using Landscape, the admin team gives users access to the resources they need using scripts pushed out to multiple servers, with no need for time-consuming configuration of individual machines.

Asset management

Landscape uses centrally stored scripts to collect information on hardware and software across the NA Bancard environment, providing a clear, current view of available resources.

Results

Streamlined PCI compliance

Landscape makes it much faster and easier for NA Bancard to comply with key PCI regulations for IT infrastructure and management – and demonstrate compliance to the regulator. “Because we can manage groups of machines and the entire Ubuntu estate centrally, and run scripts across multiple machines as timed events, we can be sure that we are meeting PCI requirements for patch management, change management, user access, security and more,” says Corbin. “Auditors love the fact that we have centralised tools for updating servers and reporting on every element of our infrastructure,” he adds.

With Landscape, NA Bancard has reduced the time needed to comply with its annual PCI audit significantly. “We currently undergo audits once a year, but we will soon move to a six-monthly audit cycle,” says Corbin. “When that happens, the impressive time savings we achieve with Landscape will double overnight,” he adds.

Time savings on routine admin

Previously, Kelly and his team logged on to individual servers to make changes or provide access for new users. “Landscape is a one-stop-shop for all our server management and monitoring needs,” he says. “For example, if I want to give web masters access to web servers, I can do it centrally, instead of accessing and configuring 20 web servers,” he adds. “That’s just one example of how Landscape reduces our administrative workloads by an order of magnitude and frees our team to focus on value-added projects.”

Fast returns on investment

The time savings delivered by Landscape translate into significant cost reductions and fast returns on NA Bancard’s investments. “We consider Landscape to be a very worthwhile investment,” says Corbin. “The technology has already paid for itself and we expect it to deliver even greater returns in the future.”

Improved visibility of available resources

Previously, there was undocumented hardware in the NA Bancard environment, making it difficult to analyse available resources.
“We couldn’t drill down to see details of each server and its components, which impacted planning and provisioning decisions,” says Corbin. “With Landscape, we can drill down into every server to see exactly what’s inside it – helping us improve capacity planning and performance,” he adds. “What’s more, when we add a new server, it is integrated into the system automatically, ensuring we always have a current, accurate view of our environment and the resources available.”

As well as informing better planning decisions, information on hardware resources is extremely valuable for NA Bancards asset team. “By passing on information about servers to the asset team, we help them understand how the value of equipment is depreciating over time and make better financial decisions,” says Corbin.

Management simplicity

Landscape is an extremely intuitive system that reduces management complexity at every turn. “I would say that Landscape makes simple admin tasks even simpler,” adds Corbin. “Because we can update and configure multiple servers centrally with the click of a mouse, we can reduce the time we spend on routine tasks and focus on strategic tasks that add real value to the business.”

Increased service availability

Landscape provides a clear view of processes running on every NA Bancard server, at any given time. As a result, it is possible to identify potential issues before they impact customer-facing services. “Landscape gives us new insight into what could potentially go wrong,” says Corbin. “This means we can remediate any issues before they impact service and increase the availability of our mission-critical services.”

Enterprise-class support

NA Bancard is able to access Landscape through Canonical’s Ubuntu Advantage service, which provides enterprise-class support for Ubuntu environments. “It’s testament to the quality and reliability of Ubuntu that we have hardly ever called on Canonical for support,” says Corbin. “However, when we did need them, they responded quickly with a solution that kept our critical systems up and running – which is just the kind of commitment and responsiveness we need in the financial services industry.”

Fast, simple deployment

NA Bancard was able to deploy Landscape very quickly and easily across all 100 of its Ubuntu servers. “We had Landscape deployed and devices registered to it within two hours and I was able to start using the system with no need for additional training,” says Corbin. “There was no disruption to our critical processes, and we were able to enjoy the benefits of centralised, streamlined server management from the word go.”

Summary

Server Density delivers server and website monitoring as a fully managed service, delivering significant infrastructure and management savings for its customers. Until recently, the company used CentOS as its server operating system, but updates were infrequent and had to be deployed manually. To reduce workloads, increase security and support PCI compliance, Server Density migrated from CentOS to Ubuntu. With frequent updates and tools for automated package and patch deployment, Ubuntu has significantly reduced administration and increased security, while ensuring compliance with PCI standards. What’s more, Server Density now has access to the latest development library releases, helping it deliver new, value-added monitoring features to customers faster.

Challenge

Most organisations need to monitor the performance of their servers and websites to ensure constant availability for critical, customer-facing services. Until recently, though, enterprise-class monitoring systems were only within reach of larger organisations, requiring costly proprietary infrastructure to support them.

To address the widespread need for cost-effective server and website monitoring, David Mytton founded Server Density in 2009. His goal was to provide server and website monitoring as a cost-effective, fully managed service.

David Mytton, Server Density’s Founder, says: “Today, Server Density helps our clients measure the performance of their servers, websites and apps, with no need for costly in-house infrastructure. If there is a performance issue, we send alerts to sys admins in real time via their PCs or mobile devices.”

Server Density’s monitoring-as-a-service concept has been hugely successful. From a small start-up in 2009, the company has grown rapidly, and now serves major global clients, including Intel, the University of Oxford, about.me and The New York Times.

To keep up with rapidly growing demand for its services, Server Density operates more than 100 physical and virtual servers at fully redundant datacentres, processing 12 terabytes of incoming customer data each month on more than 25 MongoDB database servers.

Until recently, Server Density used the CentOS server operating system to deliver monitoring services for its clients. However, this system could no longer meet the company’s requirements for constant innovation.

“Because updates to CentOS are very infrequent, we were often blocked from using the latest features of our preferred programming languages – Python and PHP,” says Mytton. “That meant our customers often had to wait for the latest monitoring features to become available, and that wasn’t good for business.”

As an additional challenge, it was difficult to keep servers secure and updated with CentOS. “We are subject to Processing Card Industry (PCI) standards, so all our servers need to be equipped with the latest security patches,” says Mytton. “With CentOS, there were no update notifications when new security patches became available, making it harder to keep servers updated and achieve compliance.”

Solution

To reduce routine administration and ensure compliance with PCI requirements, Server Density has migrated its 100-strong server estate from CentOS to Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Release (LTS) and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. “Ubuntu Long Term Release versions give us updates and support for a minimum of five years, which means guaranteed stability for our mission-critical systems,” says Mytton.

To ensure all servers are updated quickly and efficiently in line with PCI requirements, Server Density uses Canonical’s Landscape systems monitoring and management tool, which is available through the Ubuntu Advantage support service.

“Landscape lets us know when new packages and patches are available, so we can be sure our servers are always up to date,” says Mytton. “What’s more, we have configured Landscape to prioritise security updates over feature updates, which ensures we remain compliant with PCI requirements.”

“We have deployed software load balancers on two pairs of Ubuntu servers in a fully redundant configuration, allowing us to phase out two proprietary load balancing devices,” says Mytton. “This move to software-based load balancing gives us great performance, while reducing our monthly load balancing costs.”

As well as choosing Ubuntu is its server OS, Server Density’s Ops Engineers also use it on their desktops. “It’s very useful for engineers to have a single, intuitive interface for both servers and desktops,” says Mytton.

Results

End-to-end security and compliance

Frequent, automated Ubuntu updates ensure that all Server Density systems comply fully with PCI security and management requirements. “Ubuntu is updated often and Landscape lets us know when new packages and patches become available,” says Mytton. “This gives us peace of mind as we know that all our servers are equipped with the latest patches needed for PCI compliance,” he adds.

Time and cost savings

“By automating server administration and patching, we have dramatically reduced our management workloads, which translates into big cost savings and increased focus on customer-facing activities,” says Mytton. “What’s more, we have reduced our load balancing spend from $2,000 a month to just $300 a month by replacing proprietary load-balancing devices and maintenance contracts with open-source software running on Ubuntu,” he adds.

Increased competitive advantage

To remain competitive, Server Density must continually develop and deliver new application functionality for its customers.

“Because Landscape helps us keep our Ubuntu servers updated, we get faster access to all the latest developer tools,” says Mytton. “That means we can be first to market with new, value-added monitoring features that benefit our customers and increase our competitive advantage.”

Enterprise-class support

As an Ubuntu Advantage subscriber, Server Density gets enterprise-class support for its mission-critical Ubuntu environment, as well as a wealth of support information online from the global Ubuntu community.

“Ubuntu is an extremely reliable OS, but it’s great to know that we have fast access to a wealth of information online, as well as a direct line to Canonical engineers if we ever need them,” says Mytton. “We have only raised support cases with Canonical a couple of times, and each time they’ve been dealt with very quickly and effectively by Canonical engineers.”

Scalability on demand

Ubuntu is able to scale easily to support Server Destiny as it continues to grow.

“As a small company, we need software that is inexpensive to deploy and simple to scale as our customer list grows,” says Mytton. “Ubuntu allows us to deploy additional instances on dedicated infrastructure or in the cloud with no increase in licensing costs,” he adds, “and there is theoretically no limit to the data we can process and store in our Ubuntu environment.”

Increased transactional revenues for customers

“Ubuntu is the ideal technology foundation for helping our customers increase service uptime and web response times,” says Mytton. “Working away faithfully in the background, Ubuntu ensures our customers can maximise their transactional revenues and deliver the best services for their own customers, day in, day out.”